2004-2007 Cadillac CTS-V Performance Mods Discussion, OT: VIR 24 Chumpcar Report in Cadillac CTS-V Series Forum - 2004 - 2007; Guys,
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In a nutshell, me and a few track buddies ...

OT: VIR 24 Chumpcar Report

In a nutshell, me and a few track buddies got together in late spring, and decided to put together a chumpcar team to run in the 24 hour race at VIR two weeks ago.

I know a lot of you guys are track hounds, so I thought you might find it interesting. We ran 4 drivers, each running just under 6 hours each (over 4 stints). It was an unbelievable experience. Running hard wheel to wheel at night was probabaly the most fun I've ever had on the track. 115 cars made it on track. We ran Grand (4.1m) for the first 12 hours, and then went to full (3.27m). Went 3 wide through hogpen at 0230 a few times. NUTS!

Re: OT: VIR 24 Chumpcar Report

Originally Posted by rjoffe

Nice writeup !

How much time did you guys spend on the project ?

Hmm...Kinda like I've never totaled up how much I've spent on my V1, I'd prefer not to know how much time I spent on this. I can tell you I had some *mamoth* tracking spreadhseets, to make sure we covered all our bases. Lot's of "little details"" that added up to a lot of time.

Re: OT: VIR 24 Chumpcar Report

Originally Posted by rjoffe

We talking, every free waking moment, never see the wife and kids kind of time ?

Naw, but we had a great team and where able to spread the load across 4 guys, with no one slacking. I probably spent 10-15 hrs a week on this, doing research and documenting everything, doing schedules, come up with lists, purchasing things, writing up the corporate charter and article of organization, practicing on iRacing, pre race track testing, etc.

I spent a *lot* of time on the chumpcar forums, reading up on everyones experiences (especially the race reports), to try and make sure we identified everything that needed to be done.

I'm sure our car guys (2 of the guys) might disagree, but the two org guys probabaly spent as much time on that end as they did on car prep. I felt like I was organizing a Himalayan expedition. All the logistics was a b!tch.

Re: OT: VIR 24 Chumpcar Report

A lot of my buddies run Chump and/or Lemons. They've bugged me for a couple of years about it. I just don't see it. I'm glad they do. They have a blast. A lot of teams don't have so much fun. They show up in a POS they don't have ironed out. It dies and they can't get it running right. Drivers get almost no time in the car. They wait and try again next time. Lot of prep work and lot of luck. Some of the guys all but eat, sleep and breath it.

Re: OT: VIR 24 Chumpcar Report

Originally Posted by vms4evr

A lot of my buddies run Chump and/or Lemons. They've bugged me for a couple of years about it. I just don't see it. I'm glad they do. They have a blast. A lot of teams don't have so much fun. They show up in a POS they don't have ironed out. It dies and they can't get it running right. Drivers get almost no time in the car. They wait and try again next time. Lot of prep work and lot of luck. Some of the guys all but eat, sleep and breath it.

In my limited experience, we were sucessfull due to the following:

1) We picked solid reliable car make/model. Show up with an '86 fiero and for the most part you'll get an '86 fiero experience (or lack there of)
2) The actual car was in pretty good shape. Ya it had an engine fire, but aside from that it was nice. No tree's growing in it, or a bad case of ferous oxide and cracked rubber
3) We planned, planned, planned. We ran this like a business (actually it is, we started and LLC). No bullshit. Schedules with accountable action items, recurring status meetings & got the money taken care of early
4) We spent 50% of our time on car prep
5) The other 50% went to logistics and organization

Teams that hope and half ass, get the result they deserve (unless luck swings there way). If I was one guy, I'd look to rent a seat and give it a try. Read the chump forums, and find a team that looks like they have their stuff together (safety is #1), and see if you can join them for a weekend.

Now that we have the car together and have a better idea what to do and expect, it will make the level of effort for the next race a lot more manageable.

This was Ron running. As you can see we are an above average speed wise car. There are some cars though that just ate our lunch. There was a 90-ish 300z out there with no roof that ran fast lap (2:17 to our 2:34 on main.) We brought a knife to a gun fight with a few of these cars.